We often get questions about how our house sits on the lot, where the patio leads, and where the garage is in relation to the house. To clear things up, we put together a simple exterior diagram and some photos so you can see the layout. Our property is nearly an acre with very deep woods behind the house that give us wonderful privacy — one of the main reasons we fell for this well-loved ranch. We also inherited mature hedges and fences that keep the yard feeling secluded from our neighbors. Here’s our long, skinny lot (to scale):
Yes, the drawing is to scale — we traced it from the property blueprint in our closing paperwork. It’s striking how small the house looks compared with the acreage. A few things jump out right away: John has a lot of lawn to mow, the driveway is extremely long with parking room at the far end, and we have plenty of trees and shrubs that make it feel like we live in the woods. The sunroom stairs lead down to the patio, which connects to the driveway and the herb & veggie garden we planted in one of the few full-sun spots.
We also get asked a lot about the sliding glass doors in the sunroom, so here’s the explanation once and for all.
Only one set of sliding doors actually opens onto the back patio. The others face the yard or garden edges and, if you stepped out of them, you’d drop a few feet onto the garden or shrubs. We keep them for the view and the great cross breeze when we open them. The door that leads to the brick steps down to the patio is just out of frame to the right (you can spot the corner of the doormat).
Here’s the patio as seen from those steps:
Let’s rewind and start at the street. This view shows the house from the end of the long driveway where it meets the road:
Walking up the driveway toward the house gives you this side view:
When you reach the large area at the back of the driveway, that’s where we set up tables for our backyard wedding:
We later painted the garage black, so on a normal day — without 75 guests — it looks like this:
Turn slightly to the right and you get this view:
Turn a bit more to the right and walk toward the gate that leads to the patio. Our edible garden sits just outside the gate in front of the small brick stairway hidden behind a lamp post. Those steps lead down to the private basement entry, which we plan to renovate.
Inside the back gate you’ll find a cobblestone path to the patio. Here’s the view back toward the garage from inside the fence:
And here’s the house and patio seen from that cobblestone path:
We can’t forget the deep woods beyond the backyard. We love having a good-sized lawn for Burger (and future kids) plus the privacy the woods provide.
We adore this lot.
It was the land — more than the house — that sold us. After years in Manhattan’s concrete jungle, all that greenery and seclusion felt irresistible.
So that’s the exterior tour. How about you — do you have any unusual features? A long, skinny lot? A detached garage? A separate basement entry? A chicken coop? (We actually inherited one behind the garage.) Tell us about your property.